Magna Carta. Chair 7

1.

Twelve elaborate bronze chairs stand together in this ancient meadow. Each chair
includes symbols and images representing the concepts of law and key moments in the
struggle for freedom, the rule of law and equal rights. The Jury is not a memorial, but
rather a piece of art that aims to explore the changing and continuing meaning and
impact of Magna Carta
The chairs seem to be waiting to meet: an open invitation to the audience to sit down
and take a moment to reflect on the issues and stories depicted.

2.

On the back of the seventh chair we see shredding documents. The destruction or editing
of evidence is an activity undertaken throughout the world by states wishing to hide
incriminating documentation of their activities. In 1989, the destruction of files by the East
German secret police was stopped by German citizens who took over the offices of the
Stasi. There is another mention of imprisonment on the front of the chair. Nelson
Mandela's prison cell, where he served 18 years of his life sentence for sabotage and
conspiracy to overthrow the state. He was released in 1990 after 27 years in prison.

3.

There are a lot of good examples from world
history when states wanted to hide
compromising documentation of their
activities.

4.

A very good example is:
The Nuremberg Trial (English Nuremberg trial,
German Nürnberger Prozess, French Procès de
Nuremberg) is the first and key in a series of
trials of a number of war criminals of Nazi
Germany , held in the Palace of Justice of the
city of Nuremberg after the end of World War
IIGo to the section "# During the Second World
War", in 1945-1949.
During the trial that opened on November 20, 1945Go to the section “Beginning of the
trial. Position of the Prosecutor's Office", before an unprecedented judicial body - the
International Military Tribunal (IMT) of eight judges representing four countries of the
anti-Hitler coalitionGo to the section "#Choice of judges", a group of former leaders of
Nazi Germany were charged with crimesGo to the section "Before the First World War" .
The indictment, prepared by teams of prosecutors from the United States, Great Britain,
the USSR and France, contained four counts: crimes against peace, crimes against
humanity, violation of the laws of war (war crime) and conspiracy to commit these
criminal acts.

5.

A number of various documents and open archives helped to give an objective legal
assessment of the accused and inflict fair punishment on them. If not for these actions,
then the world would not really know how many people died in the concentration
camps of the Holocaust, how many people did not get help for their views and
nationality, and how many violations of humanitarian law were committed by
Wehrmacht soldiers in relation to prisoners of war.

6.

Another good example when documentation
and archives reject the reality of those
historical years is:
Repressions in the Red Army 1937-1938 large-scale political repressions ("purges")
against the command and command staff of
the Red Army and the Red Navy, which are
distinguished by researchers as one of the
manifestations, an integral part of the policy of
the "Great Terror" in the USSR, which, in turn,
was a direct a consequence of Stalin's
personality cult. In fact, they began in the
second half of 1936, but they acquired the
greatest scope after the arrest and conviction
of M. N. Tukhachevsky and seven other highranking military men in May-June 1937; for
1937-1938 their peak came, and in 1939-1941,
after a sharp decline, they continued with a
much lesser intensity. Repression was
expressed in dismissals for political reasons,
arrests and sentencing on trumped-up cases.